Every year Police Scotland receive over 20,000 missing persons reports (1), with two-thirds involving children and young people who are especially vulnerable to harm and exploitation. Among missing adults, mental health issues are common, further increasing their risk.The first 72 hours are critical, and the nature of Scotland’s geography presents additional challenges, which requires Police Scotland to effectively respond to missing persons cases.

Traditionally, searches relied on complex paper-based processes, requiring Police Search Advisors and Licensed Search Officer to manually map and consolidate data, using printed paper maps – an administrative burden generating vast paper records.

During COP26 in Glasgow (2022), Police Scotland implemented an innovative GIS-based digital, mobile workflow to streamline defensive venue searches, improving efficiency while utilising fewer resources. Using ArcGIS Online and Field Maps, this workflow represented a key milestone in Police Scotland’s approach to modernising its search operations and presented an opportunity to develop digital, mobile search tools for missing persons enquiries.

Police Scotland’s GIS team collaborated with search specialists to develop the Missing Persons Module, giving officers access to critical information about a specific search in real-time. With every operational officer now equipped with a mobile device and, in some cases mobile tablets, the Missing Persons Module has been seamlessly integrated into field operations.

At the core of the new Missing Persons Module is an automated template built in ArcGIS Enterprise, delivering a flexible and repeatable workflow. Officers access the system through a link on Police Scotland’s intranet, where they enter a missing person’s details to generate a preformatted web map. This map allows teams to define search quadrants, which can be colour-coded by risk level, upload findings directly from the field and track search progress visually with real-time updates. This process is particularly powerful given Scotland’s vast rural geography enabling officers in outlying areas to quickly digitally generate their own search sectors.

The dashboard system records daily briefings, integrates search history and allows instant communication between field teams and command staff, streamlining coordination and decision-making. Everyone has access to the same information, at the same time including the latest finds in the field, such as an uploaded image of a recovered item of clothing. This innovation not only enhances situational awareness but also provides an auditable digital trail, ensuring accountability and efficiency.

“We have successfully leveraged ArcGIS technology to digitise and modernise search operations, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy,” comments Steve Hunter, Specialist Role Trainer for Police Scotland. “With the implementation of ArcGIS Field Maps, ArcGIS Dashboards and ArcGIS Enterprise, we have developed a streamlined paperless process that is helping our officers to perform their tasks more efficiently and keep the public safe from harm.”

Time savings
Police Scotland can now respond more effectively to missing persons cases as they unfold. With all officers accessing the same real-time information digitally, advisors can make faster decisions and task search assets more efficiently. Instantaneous updates give visual progress reports and the more background information available, the greater the chance of locating the missing person quickly before they come to harm.

Ease of use
Officers using the Missing Persons Module do not need any specialist GIS experience. From previously having to mark-up paper-maps and submit these to the tasking officer at the end of each day, officers in the field now use their mobile device or tablet to upload information from their search grid from an image of an item, to a marker and descriptor of a point of interest.

Better use of resources
By taking a digital approach and streamlining missing persons enquiries, Police Scotland is making better use of resources, minimising the impact on other policing priorities. Moving away from a paper-heavy, administrative, time-intensive repetitive system allows resources to be allocated more efficiently and reallocated instantly based on real-time updates from the Missing Persons Module. This reduces duplication of effort, enhances decision-making and supports a more agile response.

Cost Savings
The first scientific study in the UK to establish the cost of missing person investigations (2), based on an assessment of real-life cases, found the estimated cost to be £2,415.80 per case. With approximately 20,000 missing person reports to Police Scotland each year, this amounts to over £48million per annum. While the time savings from digitising search efforts using the Missing Persons Module have yet to be quantified, Police Scotland anticipates that significant savings in both resources and actual costs could be achieved.